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DOE Finalizes $535 Million Loan Guarantee for Solyndra

September 08, 2009 by Jeff Shepard

The Department of Energy has finalized a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, Inc., which manufactures cylindrical solar photovoltaic panels. The funding will finance construction of the first phase of the company’s new manufacturing facility. Annual production of solar panels from the first phase is expected to provide energy equivalent to powering 24,000 homes a year or over half a million homes over the project’s lifetime.

Solyndra estimates the new plant will initially create 3,000 construction jobs, and lead to as many as 1,000 jobs once the facility opens. Hundreds more will install Solyndra’s solar panels on rooftops around the country.

Solyndra is the first recipient of a loan guarantee under the Recovery Act and Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. In addition, the loan guarantee issued to Solyndra is the first issued by DOE since the 1980s.

Over its lifetime, the first phase of the facility could manufacture up to 7GW of solar panels, which can generate electricity equivalent to 3 or 4 coal fired power plants. This plant will produce about as many new solar panels as the United States produced in 2005.

The project will introduce into large-scale commercial operation what is described as a new and innovative process for manufacturing a breakthrough design for photovoltaic panels. Solyndra’s panels will be primarily used in the fast-growing market for large, flat rooftops.